Aide Katy Tang to succeed Carmen Chu as D4 supervisor

Katy Tang, the longtime legislative aide to outgoing Supervisor Carmen Chu, is Mayor Ed Lee’s pick to replace Chu as the District Four representative on the Board of Supervisors.

Lee made the announcement at a 10 a.m. press conference, saying “continuity was important.”

Lee had said little publicly about who he was considering for the District Four post, despite speculation for months that there would be an opening.

When Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting drew only political novice Michael Breyer as his opponent in the District 19 State Assembly race, political watchers quickly predicated a Ting victory and saw the fiscally minded Chu as a natural fit to succeed him as assessor.

Lee announced earlier this month he would appoint Chu to that job once he figured out her replacement on the Board of Supervisors. He gave himself a March 4 deadline.

The plan is for both Tang and Chu to be sworn in Wednesday so Chu will have a farewell board meeting today.

Tang, Police Commissioner and former Deputy District Attorney Suzy Loftus, and former Lee aide Malcolm Yeung, who is deputy director of the Chinatown Community Development Center, were all among the names floated at City Hall as replacements in District Four.

All faced challenges, though, in a district that includes the Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods, contains a relatively large portion of homeowners and has a substantial Asian American population.

Yeung, 39, is seen as more liberal than the district as a whole, and is closely associated with controversial Chinatown leader Rose Pak.

Loftus, 38, who has three kids and is Irish American, could have faced challenges getting re-elected this fall in a district where some political consultants say about 50 percent of registered voters are Asian American, nearly all of them Chinese.

Tang is young — 29 years old — and politically untested. But she’s well-regarded among City Hall staffers and elected officials. Considered somewhat quiet, Tang seems the antithesis of a political bulldog. But she is known to key constituents in the district from her years as Chu’s aide.

Chu herself was 29 and politically inexperienced when former Mayor Gavin Newsom plucked her from his budget office in 2007 to replace Supervisor Ed Jew, whom Newsom suspended for official misconduct amid state and federal charges that included mail fraud, bribery, extortion and lying about living in the district. Jew is now serving a 64-month sentence in federal prison.

Voters in the district have historically favored Chinese supervisorial candidates in recent years: state Sen. Leland Yee, former State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and Jew.

Lee is under pressure to demonstrate he has solid judgment when it comes to picking people for city leadership. His first appointee to the board, former Planning Commission President Christina Olague in liberal District Five, was regarded by many of the mayor’s supporters as a disaster. Olague broke with Lee on key votes and wound up serving only year, getting defeated in her first election after Lee stopped publicly supporting her.

His appointee Community College Board of Trustees, Rodrigo Santos, was also soundly defeated in November after Lee had appointed him a few months earlier.